The Circular Logic of Homo economicus
The Self-delusion of Pursuing Scale, Speed and Convenience
The following is an example of real conversations I have had with many friends and family members who are financially successful but stressed and often overworked and unhealthy (the questions are in bold and answers in Italic):
My question: Why are you so stressed?
My Friend or Family Member: Because of my job, our expenses and the fast-pace of life I cannot keep up with.
Why not slow down? Why not downsize and leave your high-stress job and lifestyle, or move to a smaller house, maybe in the country side, to work part-time, or start a farm or work at a lower-stress lower-paying job?
I rely on my job in this [crowded] city because it pays well and covers our high expenses and also health insurance. I have several medical conditions.
Why are your expenses so high?
Because living costs are high in this area (taxes, housing, insurance, food, etc.).
Why do you think caused your medical conditions?
The stresses of living in this area and my job which do not leave me much time to relax and enjoy finer things in life and peace in the countryside.
Why don’t you move to the countryside to lower your expenses and stresses? Why can you not work less and enjoy life more? Why are you so attached to scale and speed (expensive lifestyle, home, cars, etc.)?
Because this is where good high-paying jobs are. I need a high-paying job that pays for my expensive lifestyle and also health insurance needed for medical conditions caused by a stressful job, neighborhood and lifestyle!
I hope you see the folly of this circular argument made by Homo economicus to justify their high-stress lifestyles. I once used such arguments in defense of my lifestyle in the fast lane. After years of experiencing what life in the fast lane does to a human body and soul, I stepped out of the fast lane and now working (part-time in the countryside) on lower-paying lower-stress projects which I love to do, from researching to writing, farming, reading, parenting and carpentry. I summarize my journey and my findings about how human body and brain work (or burn out) together in my book and my blogs (such as this one or Simplescience.Substack.com). I am now warning against our metamorphosis (from Homo sapiens) to a species called Homo economicus, which trades his/her time (read life) to the highest bidder in exchange for scale (quantity), speed and convenience. The term Homo economicus was first used in the 19th century by political economists such as Charles S. Devas to criticize the economic theories of John Stuart Mill who believed prosperity is achieved through maximizing productivity by humans who “obtain the greatest amount of necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries, with the smallest quantity of labour and physical self-denial with which they can be obtained.”
But what is the problem with becoming Homo economicus? If you have read my book, you know the metabolic (hormonal) imbalances and diseases associated with adopting a Homo economicus brain and lifestyle, i.e. trading and optimizing our time for unfettered pursuit of scale (more expensive homes and cars, larger salaries, follower numbers in social media, yachts, horses, tractors, etc.), speed (frequency of activities) and convenience (Guarded life with minimal physical inconvenience and effort). The following is a modified excerpt from Chapter 5 of my book which draws a parallel timeline between the evolutionary history of our brains and our civilizations:
During the late 18 th century, which I like to call the post-lemon era, colonialism spread throughout the world with help from capitalism. Wealthy merchants, members of the Royal families and government officials invested heavily in early stock corporations such as the British East India Company (BEIC), with the purpose of commercial and later military expansion into remote lands in Asia. By the end of the 18 th century, thanks to the miracle of lemons, the British East India Company accounted for half of the world's trade, particularly in basic commodities such as silk, cotton, indigo dye, spices (including salt and sugar), saltpeter (potassium nitrate used as fertilizer, gunpowder or preservative), tea, and opium. Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", BEIC benefited from military and government support and gradually seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonized parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong after the First Opium War, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Persian Gulf Residencies. Similar companies were formed by other European nations to expand their dominance. There were several West India Companies, such as Dutch West India Company, and separately the Danish, Swedish and French West India Companies, each colonizing different parts of the world.
In the post-lemon sea exploration and colonial era, human dominance hierarchies expanded from local to global scales. Humans with physical prowess, such as hunter gatherers of Africa and America or farmers of Asia were subjugated by Europeans with the economic prowess running East or West India companies. This was the era of collusion between men of Gold and men of Guns. Advances in coal mining, tools, weapons and ship building all helped accentuate the concentration of dominance, power and wealth hierarchy in the late 18th Century. There were rebellions and revolutions as in America and France. There were also wars between the colonialists to consolidate their power.
The world had just woken up to the emergence of Homo economicus, an era in which large-scale, high-speed economies and tools started to replace human’s physical fitness, balance and metabolic efficiency as adaptive traits. I argue that evolutionarily speaking, Homo economicus were a new and invasive species that can displace and conquer Homo sapiens, the same way Homo sapiens displaced the Neanderthals and caused their extinction. Neanderthals were more physically fit but less calculative and tool-dependent than Homo sapiens, who in turn, seem to be more physically fit but less calculative and tool-dependent than Homo economicus. In the new world order, even land ownership and aristocratic lineage would no longer guarantee dominance and power.
As the traditional powers of the royal and military class weakened, merchants, industrial job creators, tool makers and craftsmen gained power and challenged the ruling class. This re-balancing of power paved the way for American and French revolutions which ushered separation of government from the Church. The power of Church and royal aristocrats was severely diminished in this era. The political power in the new Republics rested with businessmen and industrialists. Most of the earlier US Presidents and statesmen were in fact successful wealthy businessmen or bankers.
As humans traded-off economic efficiency with metabolic efficiency, once more a series of plagues and diseases such as cholera decimated urban populations in congested European, American and Asian cities and trade hubs.
19 th Century: Industrial Capitalism and the Reign of Homo economicus
Advanced tools, global trade and economic efficiency allowed capitalism to flourish. Labor became commoditized and mobile, which led to mass migration of humans, particularly from Europe to Americas, but also tragically to slavery and exploitation of human labor. The human brain, particularly in industrial countries, had evolved to assign an economic value to any asset including fellow humans. This type of calculus helped slave owners justify their act, even if they were religious and aware of the evil in slavery. As we shall see in chapter 6, self- interest often leads to self-delusion.
The themes of speed, quantity, reach, and convenience in human lives accelerated in the era of capitalism. Mathematically speaking, exponential (as opposed to linear) growth happens any time the rate (speed) of growth depends on the current size which is often the case with tools and technology. A fast microchip with high processing capacity can design the next generation of even faster chips at a much higher rate than an old slower one. So speed begets speed, quantity begets quantity in an exponential (non-linear) pattern.
The story of Texas Rangers …..
I did not have the support of Big House publishers so as an independent scientist/author, I feel proud when I receive great reviews by independent readers like you. The following is an introduction to the book on Amazon, ranked as Hot New Release:
Why do humans walk a tightrope between depression and addiction (habituation), anxiety and recklessness? Why is it so hard to kick bad habits? Who do several countries now have Ministries of Loneliness to keep the social fabrics from falling apart? Why are humans so prone to self-delusion, self-deception, and forming mobs and cults?
Most of us know more about sports, politics, games, apps, and our jobs than about how our own brain and body work or get burned out together. For less than the cost of a family dinner, this is one of the few books in the market that can help us understand in simple language the complex nature of body-brain feedback loops as the common denominator of disorders and diseases (such as diabetes, depression, hypertension, weight gain, dementia, sleep disorders, constipation, infertility), and discords (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars). The author has spent two years to ingeniously draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines: Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism to help us understand the cerebral root of fatigue and imbalance that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. This book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body.
The world’s largest battles are fought inside human minds and today most of us suffer from abuse not by others but by our own brain. In this book, we learn about the neurochemical soup that makes our "economic" brain prone to "metabolic" imbalance and leads us to pursue unfettered growth. "The sky is the limit" thinking has constructed a world of winners, losers and barely anyone in between.
In my book and my blogs (here and on Simplescience.Substack.com), I connect our biology to our psychology and brain’s neurochemistry to show why our denatured evolutionary path has led to widespread imbalances both at the individual and social levels, which we respectively call disease and injustice.